Google's Nexus One will spend the end of its brief, sad life as a developer phone sold through some unnamed partner.
With a Friday blog post, Google announced that it has received its last shipment of Nexus Ones from the manufacturer and that once these are sold, it will — as promised — close the ill-fated webstore where it …

This is the closure of the Google store..

.. not complete closure of all sales, they are still shipping them to carriers. It will be around a long while yet.

Nexus One was basically Google showing the world what an Android device *should* be. Raising the bar a bit. It kickstarted the mass uptake of Android by pretty much every major phone manufacturer. That's why they called it a success. Google don't want to sell phones, they want people to use their software.

It's a compact high powered Android handset, running a pretty vanilla version. The hardware is remarkably similar to the iPhone 4 which launched 6 months later. I imagine they will keep the software updates coming as long as the hardware can handle it, like pretty much every other phone on the market.

A sad end

And yet..

.. Vodafone are pimping this above the HTC Desire in the UK. Not quite as dead as you make it out to be.

Regardless of individual success, the Nexus One gave the manufacturers a much needed kick in the arse to release top notch Android phones. However much later from N1 release, and I see people walking around with Desires, Nexus Ones, Galaxy S phones, who wouldn't have been seen with an Android phone before the Nexus One came out.

That's why Google see the N1 as a success - because it's improved it's marketability.

Love my Nexus One as its pure.

This article has inspired me

To finally order my Nexus One from the google site (bit of a pain here in Australia but still the cheapest was to get a decent phone). And I agree with the posters above, it achieved its goal - there are Android phones everywhere now and they're getting updates far more frequently. For me it was either this or the Desire... The only annoying thing is that now you'll have to sign up as a dev ($25 fee) before you can order one through google.

Though that may make it easier for people outside the US and still keep the telcos happy.

Thought it was a good phone?

Reviews I read said it was pretty good... a worthy competitor to HTC. So while dropping direct sales seems sensible, why would they not push it through normal routes? Are they really stopping production of the hardware... if so I wonder how much HTC made on the deal helping develop it for Google?

It's not a competitor to HTC

It *is* an HTC, and a very nicely-made one too. It's just branded google, running plain Android. It's more or less identiacal internally to the Desire, barring the extra bands on the radio, and the noise cancelling mic. Fast, and a lovely screen on it.

They also do sell it "through normal routes", just the author of this article didn't do his research very well. In many countries, operators sell the Nexus One. Don't believe everything you read, especially from lazy wiki-fiddlers :)

Got my N1...

...back in February, and I love it.

I'm not impressed with the way OEMs and carriers are going with newer phones - encrypting bootloader, preventing sideloading of apps, and generally trying to lock down the Android experience into a hedged, if not walled garden.

OEMs and carriers have been ridiculously tardy in preparing, testing and delivering updates, and for that reason alone, I'll continue to use dev phones as they become available. You can keep your Sense, and your Motoblur and your Timescape - its vanilla Android for me, with updates delivered directly from Google, as soon as they are ready for primetime.

I'm happy to register as a developer, simply to be able to get my hands on one of the next generation of dev phone. Don't care what it looks like - function > form in my book.

Seriously folks, it was an exercise in leverage

I love mine

I don't understand why this author is grinding an axe about the N1. I picked mine up whilst working in the US and I've been really impressed with it. By the authors own quotation, the N1 sold half a million phones which in my book, isn't that bad really. Yes, we all know that the iphone sells millions every time a new model is released but for a phone that didn't have anywhere near the marketing bling that *any* Apple product gets, I think that's a solid return.

I was a staunch iPhone advocate (not quite a fanbois) as it was, for me, the best user experience I'd had with a Smartphone, but I've since stopped using my 3GS in favour of the N1. My iphone is now just an ipod that I can make calls on if I'm really desperate (isn't that what it always was anyway?).

Having shown off my N1 to my iPhone carrying friends, they're all blown away by it's speed, interface and features.

And I can hold it in my left hand without the signal dropping to zero ;)

2. This annoys their partners somewhat after they have outlaid a bucket of cash in promotion etc by selling their own phone in competition and then invite them to join the Google store, but claim they are not in competion.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/06/the_googlephone_store/

3. Then when things are perhaps not going so swimmingly on the phone selling front globally they decide to sell the N1 through partner retail channels.

Google Store

Would have been nice to see all android phones in the google store.

but the carriers would never allow it and google doesn't have enough muscle to take them on.

I can't wait for the Google Data Only Network to roll out. Data only devices are not telephones and not subject to the same rules, making the network cheaper. The fact that data only devices can make voip calls is an interesting sidenote.

I have a Desire

Which is more or less identical to the N1. It's on Orange. First thing I did was go the XDA and get the know how to wipe off the Orange crud then rooted the phone and now i can use whatever Android Rom i want. Most are based now on the N1 v.2.2 software and I can have vanilla flavour or HTC sense. I can change on a daily basis if I wish. Best phone I have ever owned.

Love my Nexus One

Running 2.2 pushed out from T-Mobile two weeks ago. Fast, beautiful, works right. I don't care how many were sold - so long as Android is successful in the marketplace. It will serve me well for long enough.

I wish Google had continued to sell phones, but that's beside the point.